Of the many powers granted to federal, state, and local governments through the Constitution of theUnited States, eminent domain is possibly the strongest and most imposing, at least as it relates to citizens’ property rights. This dissertation explores several large-scale public undertakings inNew Orleansduring the period from 1929 to 2011 in which the application of eminent domain was necessary to accomplish the government’s goals. This research window will allow the analysis of eminent domain applications from the construction of the Municipal Auditorium through the new medical center projects spurred by the flooding associated with Hurricane Katrina. This timeframe also allows for evaluation of the interaction between planning inNew Orleansand the City’s exercises of eminent domain. By better understanding the past uses of eminent domain and the goals and policies that drove the exercise of this power, researchers and planning practitioners will be better informed in making decisions that will impact the rebuilding and the future ofNew Orleans. The specific cases studied as part of this dissertation are: the Municipal Auditorium (Chapter 2); the development of Public Housing (Chapter 3); the Civic Center (Chapter 4), Bridges and Highways (Chapter 5), the Cultural Center (Chapter 6); and the Medical Center of Louisiana at New Orleans and Veterans Administration Medical Center (Chapter 7). The reason for evaluating all types of projects resulting in the use of eminent domain use inNew Orleansis because all have profound impacts on the communities in which this governmental power is exercised. The primary finding of this dissertation is that the exercise of eminent domain has never been used a principal tool in the implementation of redevelopment proposals in the city ofNew Orleans. All projects throughout the established research period required the use of governmental expropriation authority to complete land acquisition, but in all cases the government’s authority was used conservatively and only when privately negotiated purchases failed.

Where and how to house the urban poor remains a controversial issue. Public housing residents are particularly vulnerable. Issues of race, class and gender intersect in their lives. Public-private partnerships in urban redevelopment projects and a focus on issues that arise from concentrated poverty gave rise to HOPE VI policy aimed at deconcentrating poverty via public housing demolition and redevelopment. In New Orleans, the effects of Hurricane Katrina further complicate this contested process. The purpose of this case study is to understand how residents experienced and framed the process of displacement brought on by disaster and the redevelopment of the Magnolia projects, comparing those who returned to the revitalized project to those who did not. The data I collected are 4 semi-structured interviews and one focus group with residents, 56 newspaper articles, and 60 photos. Doing so uncovered nuanced resident narratives often left out of public housing redevelopment decisions.

Housing requisition (Fangwu Zhengshou) is defined as the power to take residents’ property for public use by the state. Between 1995 and 2010, one million residential units were relocated from the inner city of Shanghai to the outskirts of the city or suburban counties. Historically, residents have been excluded stakeholders in large-scale urban renewal in post-reform China. Starting in 2011, Shanghai requires residents to vote on property takings for inner-city renewal. In March 2013, residents voted down the Block 59 project in the North Bund area in Shanghai, which marks the first housing requisition project for inner-city redevelopment rejected by residents in Shanghai. This research illustrates how citizen participation frames or structures the relocation decision-making and whether participation matters. This dissertation investigates four lines of inquiry: 1) How are housing requisition regulations and negotiations shaped at the district level in Shanghai? 2) What roles do the state and local authorities play, and how is this associated with urban redevelopment regimes under neoliberal governance? 3) Do the more “participatory” approaches to housing requisition for urban redevelopment address power relations and conflicts among local groups in different districts? If so, how? 4) What strategies do residents use to negotiate inner-city redevelopment? I utilize qualitative methods to recognize the complexities of citizen participation in urban renewal in Shanghai, and to develop an understanding of the dynamics of citizen participation and governance structures. The 2011 regulations provide a more transparent, open and interactive process for community residents directly affected by housing requisition projects. However, the term “public interest” is ambiguously defined under the 2011 regulations. Findings suggest that state-led participation in housing requisition is a tool for the government authorities to facilitate economic growth through requisition and strengthen the legitimacy for requisition among the relocated residents. The shift of compensation from counting the number of people in a household to considering the size and value of the apartment illustrates the shift from a social welfare approach to a market approach. The participation schemes promote fairness in a certain way that people who hold out for more compensation lose the power.

Dentre os processos urbanos passíveis de serem analisados pelos novos sensores de alta resolução espacial está a refuncionalização de antigas áreas industriais, atualmente desativadas. Os edifícios e terrenos industriais que tiveram um uso ativo, mas que foram fechados, abandonados, e estão ociosos, são chamados de brownfields. Nos últimos anos, alguns destes locais tem sido refuncionalizados, alterando suas formas, estruturas e funções, incorporando, portanto, novos usos. Neste trabalho são analisadas primeiramente as questões teóricas acerca dos brownfields sua conceituação, formação, refuncionalização, e impactos gerados. Posteriormente, são apresentadas as metodologias de aplicação das geotecnologias nos estudos sobre brownfields e a discussão de suas potencialidades. O objetivo desta pesquisa foi estudar a utilização do sensoriamento remoto e dos sistemas de informação geográfica (SIG) para identificar áreas de potenciais brownfields e analisar o processo de refuncionalização de antigos espaços fabris dos bairros do Brás, Mooca e Belém, em São Paulo. Neste contexto, as aerofotos e as imagens Quickbird integradas em ambiente SIG mostraram serem de grande auxílio para a identificação de brownfields, bem como para a análise do processo de refuncionalização, que foi atualizado e corroborado com os trabalhos de campo nos bairros citados. A acurácia da classificação supervisionada do uso do solo da imagem Quickbird no software TNTmips, apresentou Kappa de 86.29% para o bairro do Brás, 89.41% para a Mooca e 89.25% para o Belém; e a acurácia global apresentou 88.53% para o Brás, 91.85% para a Mooca e 90.25% para o Belém resultados considerados excelentes. Este trabalho, portanto, contribui em apresentar novas possibilidades de estudos sobre brownfields, valendo-se da potencialidade das geotecnologias e das imagens de alta resolução espacial para análise intra-urbana. Além disso, as questões analisadas nesta pesquisa apontam caminhos teóricos e metodológicos para a melhor compreensão destas áreas e para a busca por intervenções mais adequadas visando solucionar problemas urbanos. / Among the urban processes susceptible to be analyzed through the new high resolution spatial sensors, is the redevelopment of old industrial areas, presently deactivated. The building and industrial terrains that had and active use, but that were shutdown, abandoned, and are idle, are called brownfields. In the last years, some of these places have been redeveloped, changing its shapes, structures and functions, incorporating, this way, new uses. On this paper are analyzed, primarily, the theoretical issues about the brownfields - its conception, formation, redevelopment, and generated impacts. Subsequently, are presented the geotechnologies methodologies application on the brownfields studies and the discussion of its potentialities. The objective of this research was to study the use of remote sensing and the Geographic Information System (GIS) to identify potential brownfields areas and analyse the redevelopment process of old industrial spaces in the districts of Brás, Mooca and Belém, in the city of São Paulo. In this context, the aerial photos and Quickbird images, integrated in a GIS environment, showed to be of great aid in the brownfields identification, as well as to the redevelopment analysis process, that was updated and supported with field work in the quoted districts. The supervised classification accuracy of the land use in the Quickbird image over the Software TNTmips, shows Kappa of 86.29% to the Brás district, 89.41% to Mooca and 89.25% to Belém; and the overall accuracy presented 88.53% to Brás, 91.85% to Mooca and 90.25% to Belém - results considered excellent. So, this paper contributes with the presentation of new study possibilities over brownfields, taking advantage of the geotechnologies and high resolution spatial imagery potentialities to the intra-urban analysis. Beside this, the analyzes issues on this research indicate theoretical and methodological ways to a better comprehension of these areas and to the quest for more adequate interventions, seeking to solve urban problems.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Architecture, University Of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Town and Regional Planning Johannesburg, 1991 / This dissertaion will explore the principles of legal precedent and how they are applied in the legal decision-making process. This will take place in the framework of law and the South African legal system. The similar concerns of planning and law will be described. The nature of planning precedent and the way in which it is set and applied in principle and practice will be described. This will be compared to legal precedent and criticised accordingly. Case studies will be used to illustrate the practlcal ways in which planning precedent is created. All discussions will take place in terms of the notion of the pUblic interest as it is viewed from the perspective of the public sector planner. The growth and development of Planning and planning legislation will be traced to illustrate the public interest nature of planning. The dissertation will conclude with a set of recommendations which serve to formalise the way in which planning precedent is set and used.

Bayview-Hunters Point, a neighborhood in southeastern San Francisco, has long been one of the most impoverished and polluted areas in the city. In an example of environmental racism, much of the African American community in San Francisco was segregated to Bayview-Hunters Point by racist housing policies and practices. This neighborhood was home to the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard (HPNS), which was widely polluted with hazardous wastes from shipyard operation as well as radioactive contamination from the Navy Radiological Defense Laboratory established on this property. The former HPNS was made a federal Superfund site in 1989 and has been in remediation by the Navy since, with the goal of eventual transfer of the land to the city of San Francisco for redevelopment into residential and commercial areas. Throughout the history of the HPNS, government agencies have obscured both radioactive contamination and the nearby disadvantaged community in pursuit of military and economic power. As a result, the forces of redevelopment have outpaced remediation in Hunters Point. In this thesis, I argue that in continuing the environmental racism marginalizes the community in Bayview-Hunters Point and working to hide the contamination at the nearby Superfund site government agencies, primarily the Navy and city government, have fostered the conditions for green gentrification to occur, which could have ill effects on both the longstanding community and new residents.

A study was initiated in 1981 to investigate the redevelopment of plant communities on a recontoured, surface-mined site in southwestern Wyoming. The landscape pattern of vegetation was compared with topographic position, the initial topsoil pattern, and cultural practices including shrub planting density, shrub planting pattern and topsoil treatments for the years 1982-1985. In addition, differences in vascular plant species diversity within these various factors and treatments were determined, along with the trend in intracommunity (alpha), intercommunity (beta) and landscape (gamma) diversity for the entire study area. The influence of site factors and tested cultural practices on the differentiation of the landscape vegetation pattern generally declined over time. There were no persistent differences in diversity among any cultural treatments or topographic positions, with the exception of plan ting pattern. The vegetation classified by cultural treatment, topographic position, or the initial plant comm uni ties identified in 1982 showed strong successional convergence by 1985. This is reflected in a decline in be ta and gamma diversity over the period 1984-1985. Alpha diversity remained stable over this same period, though species richness increased, indicating that a subset of species is becoming more dominant. The landscape vegetation pattern apparently converged to a rather uniform composition, increasingly dominated by perennial grasses, forbs and shrubs.

Increasingly there has been a new model for inner-city redevelopment and revitalization, in which an urban area is commodified and turned into a festival market and an exclusive shopping district referred to as a shopertainment area. Ybor City in Tampa, Florida, is typical of this new model of redevelopment where urban entertainment and shopping with an active nightclub and dinning scene, entices new visitors to area, and most recently a growing residential population. The residential population that is developing is one of exclusivity and privilege, exceedingly far removed from Ybor City's humble beginnings as a company town or the blighted area that was sacrificed to Urban Renewal polices of the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's. Ybor City is changing into a themed city in which ethnic identity and history is being commodified and the historical and cultural capital of the area is being marketed by the city government and private developers in order to attract daytrippers, seasonal tourists, homeowners and other residents. This thesis deconstructs the gentrifying effects that Camden, Ybor City's first residential apartment complex, has had on the area by examining how the contemporary literature deals with gentrification. Additionally, this thesis will examine the demographic changes in Ybor's population as the area shifts away from residents who historically represented Ybor City, advancing the theory that Ybor City is an exclusive community that is indeed being gentrified.

Over the course of the past several decades the benefits of redeveloping brownfields have been widely recognized. Actions have been taken to foster sustainable redevelopment of brownfields by government, policy makers and stakeholders across the world. However, redevelopments encounter great challenges and risks related to environmental and non-environmental issues. In this work, we intend to build a comprehensive and practical framework to evaluate the hydrogeological and financial risks involved during redevelopment and to ensure developers reserve sufficient capital to cover unexpected future costs within the guarantee period. Punitive damages, which contribute to these costs, are in this thesis solely associated with the cost of repossessing a house within a development should the indoor air concentration of TCE exceed the regulatory limit at a later time. The uncertainties associated with brownfield remediation have been among the barriers to brownfield redevelopment. This is mainly caused by the lack of knowledge about a site’s environmental condition. In order to alleviate uncertainties and to better understand the contaminant transport process in the subsurface, numerical simulations have been conducted to investigate the role of controlling parameters in determining the fate and transport of volatile organic compounds originating from a NAPL source zone located below the water table in the subsurface. In the first part of this thesis, the numerical model CompFlow Bio is used on a hypothesized three-dimensional problem geometry where multiple residential dwellings are built. The simulations indicate that uncertainty in the simulated indoor air concentration is sensitive to heterogeneity in the permeability structure of a stratigraphically continuous aquifer with uncertainty defined as the probability of exceeding a regulatory limit. Houses which are laterally offset from the groundwater plume are less affected by vapour intrusion due to limited transverse horizontal flux of TCE within the groundwater plume in agreement with the ASTM (2008) guidance. Within this uncertainty framework, we show that the Johnson and Ettinger (1991) model generates overly-conservative results and contributes to the exclusion zone being much further away from the groundwater plume relative to either CompFlow Bio or ASTM (2008). The probability of failure (or the probability of exceedence of the regulatory limit) is defined and calculated for further study. Due to uncertainties resulting from parameter estimation and model prediction, a methodology is introduced to incorporate field measurements into the initial estimates from the numerical model in order to improve prediction accuracy. The principle idea of this methodology is to combine the geostatistical tool kriging with the statistical data assimilation method Kalman filter to evaluate the worth and effectiveness of data in a quantitative way in order to select an optimal sampling scenario. This methodology is also used to infer whether one of the houses located adjacent to affected houses has indoor air problems based on the measurements subject to the observation that the affected house is monitored and has problems and developers have liability if a problem occurs. In this part of the study, different sampling scenarios are set up in terms of permeability (1 – 80 boreholes) and soil gas concentration (2, 4 and 7 samples) and three metrics are defined and computed as a criterion for comparison. Financing brownfield redevelopment is often viewed as a major barrier to the development process mainly due to risks and liabilities associated with brownfields. The common way of managing the risk is to transfer it to insurers by purchasing insurance coverage. This work provides two different strategies to price the risk, which is equivalent to an insurance premium. It is intended to give an instructive insight into project planning and feasibility studies during the decision-making process of a brownfield project. The two strategies of risk capital valuation are an actuarial premium calculation principle and a martingale premium calculation principle accounting for the hydrogeological and financial uncertainties faced in a project. The data used for valuation are the posterior estimates of data assimilation obtained from the results of different sampling scenarios. The cost-benefit-risk analysis is employed as a basis to construct the objective function in order to find the least cost among sampling scenarios for the project. As a result, it shows that drilling seven boreholes to extract permeability data and taking soil gas samplings in four locations or seven locations alternatively give the minimum total cost. Sensitivity analysis of some influential parameters (the safety loading factors and the possible methods to calculate the probability of failure) is performed to determine their roles of importance in the risk capital valuation. This framework can be applied to provide guidance for other risk-based environmental projects.

The physical redevelopment of Canadian downtown cores has been seen as a primary issue in economically and socially revitalizing urban areas. In the case of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, the Citys South Downtown area is in need of such rejuvenation. In 2004 redevelopment plans for the area are underway; Saskatoon has set out a proposal to redevelop both its riverfront area and adjacent South Downtown. In order to accomplish the goal of a revitalized South Downtown, the authors of a successful redevelopment proposal must first identify a suitable user population for the area, namely the population of Saskatoon in its entirety, including the Citys disadvantaged central neighbourhood residents. The purpose of this thesis is to define the socio-economic traits of this potential user population for Saskatoons South Downtown in order to recommend facilities and services that should be included in the redevelopment effort. Census data for the fifty-one census tracts that comprise the census metropolitan area of Saskatoon are used to define the social and economic characteristics of this user population. After reviewing the populations socio-economic situations, as well as the social and business organizations that are currently located in the area, recommendations regarding appropriate, requisite facilities and services can be ascertained. These recommendations could then be implemented in the undertakings currently transpiring in Saskatoons South Downtown. Along with defining the socio-economic character of the user population, this study also examines past redevelopment proposals for Saskatoons South Downtown area in an attempt to understand the historical context of the area. The three main past plans for the South Downtown area include: The Meewasin Valley Project (also known as Moriyamas 100 Year Plan), the Mayors Task Force Report, and Princeton Developments South Downtown Master Plan. All of these failed attempts share many common design traits, culminating in the general goal to develop the area into a commercial, residential and recreational area that would cater to the upper-class residents of the city as well as higher-income tourists and visitors to the area. While it must not be assumed that plans which exclude lower-income populations are inherently wrong and destined to be unsuccessful, by targeting such an exclusive population as the primary users of a South Downtown redevelopment, the authors of the previous plans had inadvertently sought to develop an elite district of Saskatoon, financially inaccessible to a vast majority of the citys population. Defining the socio-economic traits of a user population that is comprised of all Saskatonians, and implementing facilities and services that cater to them, would result in an area that is not discriminating; all peoples regardless of life situation or neighbourhood of residence would be able to enjoy an interesting and revitalized South Downtown area of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.